She slides the side door open waving a hand toward the space inside. “Pop your stuff in here, you ride up front with me.”
I slide my overnight bag in. Then my gear bag. My bedroll. The small space fills up too quickly. “You sure about this?”
She’s in the driver’s seat already and turns back to give me a shrug. “Sure.”
I slide the door shut. Sliding my hat from my head, I open the passenger door and climb into the seat. I feel like a giant, folded up in the tight space between the seat and the simple old-school dash. My knees are almost touching the damn thing.
She shifts the VW into drive, and we roll along the gravel road and out of the rec grounds.
Maggie glances at me. “Think it’s the alternator?”
“Most likely. I’ll arrange for another one before the weekend is up. Have her running for the drive home.”
She just smiles like she knows something I don’t and indicates before turning onto the highway. Her window is rolled halfway down, the breeze funneling into the van sending her scent around me.
Fuck, it’s as mesmerizing as it was the first time I got a hint of it that first day in the chutes. Only now, sitting in the cramped cab with her has my body coming alive in a way it shouldn’t. I don’t date. Don’t really have time between rodeo and the ranch. Besides, my nosy sisters would take the smallest interest I have in any woman and run with it like their lives depended on it.
“You’re quiet.” Maggie adjusts the window, rolling it up a little as if she’s aware of how her presence and proximity are affecting me. “Need to stop for food? There’s a gas station the next town over.”
My stomach’s been pinching with hunger since I woke up. One coffee isn’t going to cut it. “Yeah, that’d be great. I’m starving.”
“Great!” Her hands are set at ten and two as her hair wanders around her shoulders, the cool breeze obsessed with her. Who could blame it.
This girl is sunshine, sweet and . . .Fuuuuck.
I rub a hand behind my neck, forcing my focus out my window before my semi hard-on becomes a permanent fixture in my goddamn jeans.
Between her run in with Knox and last night’s nightmares, she’s growing on me. I’ve started to feel something.
Something that makes me wish I didn’t.
No distractions.
No wavering on my goal. The stakes are too high if I fail. I’ll either end up injured, or worse... We lose the ranch.
My gut flips.
We hit a pothole, my head hitting the roof of the van, and I round out a grunt. “Dammit.”
“Oh shoot, sorry, I didn’t see it.”
“You want me to drive?” I growl.
Her eyes widen a little as her hands adjust around the wheel. “No, we’re good.”
“We?”
“Betsy is a one-woman van. Sorry, Jones.”
Now I’m raising a brow at her. “You named your van?”
“You didn’t?” She gives me a feigned shocked expression, hand over her heart.
I chuckle.
This beats hitching a lift with any of the guys. “Well, you tell Betsy thanks for the ride. Much appreciated.”
The megawatt smile stretching her face takes my breath away.
